SlipSTD is a collective research project, co-financed by the FP6 programme “Horizontal Research Activities involving SMEs”. The project has been devised to stimulate the design of tiles for improved slip resistance. This will be achieved through research, testing and development conducted by the five project partners. In short, the objectives of the project are to:

• Establish fundamental knowledge concerning the influence of surface characteristics on the slip resistance of ceramic tiles.



• Decrease the number of slip accidents by improving the surface characteristics of tiles and creating suitable benchmarks for assisting end-users in the selection of appropriate tiles.



• Promote better understanding of slip resistance issues for SME manufacturers of ceramic floor tiles and end users to enable them to meet their legislative responsibilities.



• Define common "European" minimum requirements needed by ceramic tiles to be labelled with CE marking based onwell defined and measurable surface properties in preference to traditional slip resistance testing. This approach should reduce the need to refer to a diversity of slip resistance measurement methods and remove trade barriers within Europe.

The SlipSTD consortium is coordinated by CERAM and comprises well-known public bodies in addition to a good mix of end-users, tile manufacturers, tile manufacturers associations, architects, H&S associations and leading European Research Centres. These partners bring a real cross-disciplinary know-how, with expertise in surface technology, tile manufacturing, testing and standard development context awareness and Health & Safety needs.

The tangible deliverables of the SlipSTD project are:

1. A Publicly Available Specification (PAS) that specifies the requirements needed by the surface of glazed or unglazed ceramic floor tiles to be classified as "slip resistant". It will also include requirements for documentation to be provided with "slip resistant" ceramic tiles. Recommendations for installation and maintenance of "slip resistant" ceramic floor tiles will also be made in separate annexes.
   
   The finished PAS will be a printed document, possibly translated into major European languages which should originate key industry standards that can gain market credibility due to the reputation of the participants of the SlipSTD consortium. The objective of the final PAS document will be to:



• Provide rules, guidelines and characteristics for the tile manufacturers to ensure confidence in producing slip resistant ceramic floor tiles.



• Provide architects with simple guidelines to confidently design safer floors.



• Ultimately reduce the number of slip accidents.



2. A reference database of validated surface profiles and a set of standard surfaces with different slip resistance characteristics to provide a carefully defined, reproducible validation tool for slip resistance measurements and a
   suitable benchmark for flooring manufacturers. The standard surfaces would be tested, analysed and proposed for adoption by the various CEN technical committees for finding an agreement on a harmonised method for measuring slip resistance.*

*Although the consortium is committed to support the activity of the various CEN technical committees currently working in defining standard methods for measuring slip resistance of ceramic tiles, this project does not intend to endorse any particular test method to characterise the slip resistance of ceramic tiles and does not intend to develop or propose new methods for measuring the slip resistance.

If you have any comments, please e-mail: giuliano.tari@ceram.com

If you are an SME manufacturer and you want to get involved in the project, please contact us.

Dr Giuliano Tari, +44 (0)1782 764240, e-mail: giuliano.tari@ceram.com